A strong tradition of research-led teaching matched by a commitment to excellence in innovation, the School of Information Technologies at the University of Sydney is a national leader in computer science.

The majority of our undergraduate and postgraduate courses are accredited by the Australian Computer Society (ACS), teaching fundamental principles and practical skills in IT, and establishing the foundations for an entire career.

The School of IT has a purpose-built building with advanced facilities, maintaining its position as a key teaching and research institution.

Abstract

Complex systems - which include as power and data grids, communication and transport systems, social networks and ecosystems - evolve and 'self-organise' over time. This can result in both benefits and challenges. Self-organisation is pervasive: individual organisms within a swarm achieve collective coherence out of isolated actions; ecosystems develop spatial structures in order to deal with diminishing resources; and large-scale natural and social processes including bushfires, landslides and disease epidemics feature spontaneous, scale-invariant behaviour. Sometimes self-organisation strengthens the overall system, increasing its resilience in the face of external disturbances, adaptability to new tasks and scalability with respect to new constraints, but in some regimes it can also manifest itself as a crisis. Examples of such crises include cascading power failures, loss of data in sensor and communication networks, traffic disruptions, epidemic outbreaks and ecosystem collapses. Complex systems can also be viewed as distributed information-processing systems. Consciousness emerging from neuronal activity and interactions, cell behaviour resultant from gene regulatory networks and swarming behaviour are all examples of global system behaviour emerging as a result of the local interactions of the individuals (neurons, genes, animals). Can these interactions be seen as a generic computational process? This question shapes the main theme of the talk, linking computation to complexity and criticality.

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Associate Professor Kalina Yacef from the School of Information Technologies has been selected to participate in the prestigious Vice-Chancellor’s Sponsorship Program.

This program aims to accelerate the careers of high-potential, culturally- and linguistically-diverse women in regard to the dominant culture at the University, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women from both Professional and Academic career paths. Associate Professor Yacef, along with 12 other career-focused female leaders, will be provided with development to expand their leadership skills, experience, networks and visibility through access to a senior career sponsor, and a program of targeted career development workshops and events over the next ten months.

Please join us in congratulating Associate Professor Yacef in this excellent achievement.